Firm seeks new rules for tobacco farming

Source from:  tobaccointernational.com 06/22/2007

Nyanza — Alliance One Tobacco has asked the government to officially revise the crop’s cultivation calendar to avert a looming shortage. The international firm said the emergence of a viral disease in tobacco-growing areas could affect yields, resulting the need to regulate the timing of the crop’s cultivation. Raphael Otaalo, the company’s divisional leaf manager, said the regulation would provide for a closed season to check and eradicate the disease. It would also compel farmers to grow the crop at the same time. Using the agricultural calendar, former agriculture minister Elijah Mwangale earmarked tobacco cultivation for Nov. 15 to July 31 with a closed season between Aug. 1 to Nov. 14 in Nyanza. But due to climate change, a new farming period of Oct. 1 to June 15 with a closed season of June 16 to Sept. 30 was adopted but never formally carried out. Otaalo noted that some tobacco companies had formulated their own calendars by starting nurseries in September, creating confusion and losses in the tobacco industry. “Bearing in mind that tobacco is a cash crop, it is imperative to note that the crop should not compete with, but supplement food production in the tobacco-growing areas,” he said. He warned that tobacco farming, especially in Kuria District, was likely to diminish if the trend would not be checked. “This is why we are now asking the government to ‘re-gazette’ the tobacco growing calendar and enforce a penalty to any company or farmer that violates the set dates,” said Otaalo, adding that “the Ministry of Agriculture and the Provincial Administration should then be given full authority to penalize any errant company or farmer in case there is hostility to implementation of the order.” Last year, the country produced 10,640 tons of tobacco, fetching Sh581 mn. But production had dropped to 4,100 tons as of December 2006 partly due to the disease and haphazard cultivation.